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Ke^x'aAeA Uom Journal of Proceedings and Addresses oi the Seventh Annual Conference of the Association of 
American Universities 



THE REACTION OF GRADUATE WORK 

ON THE OTHER WORK OF 

THE UNIVERSITY 



PRESIDENT JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN 



PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 



J 



THE REACTION OF GRADUATE WORK ON THE OTHER WORK OF THE 
UNIVERSITY 

PAPER PREPARED BY PRESIDENT JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN, AND PRESENTED ON BEHALF OF 

COIUSIELL UNIVERSITY BY PROFESSOR CLYDE AUGUSTUS DUNIWAY, OF 

LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY 

In dealing with this subject, it seems to me more profitable to describe the results of 
our experience at Cornell University than to attempt to treat the subject from more general 
points of view. And in order that I might have correct impressions regarding Cornell 
University, I have sent an inquiry on the subject to every member of the university faculty, 
which consists of the professors and assistant professors of the University. I have had 
rephes from nearly all of them, and this paper is prepared on the basis of my own observa- 
tions and experience and in the Hght of those rephes. 

In order that the facts and circumstances may be before you, I will say briefly that, 
taking the statistics for the last academic year, which ended September 30, 1905, Cornell 
University enrolled 3,841 students. Or, if we exclude the Summer Session and the Winter 
School in Agriculture, and take account only of the students enrolled during the academic 
year — from September to June — the number was 3,318. Of this enrolment about 10 per cent. 
— or, to be exact, 348 — were women; the remainder, 2,970, were men. The total enrolment 
for the year 1905-6 has not yet been made up, though it is considerably larger than the figures 
just given for 1904-5; but the figures for the Graduate Department are available. In the 
Graduate Department there are enrolled 222 students (of whom 190 are men and 32 women), 
who are graduates of 85 different colleges or universities, American or foreign. Besides 
these graduates who are enrolled in the Graduate Department, and who are, as a rule, candi- 
dates for advanced degrees, there are 234 graduates of other colleges and universities enrolled 
in technical and other undergraduate courses of the University. While it is obvious that 
this latter group of students, by their training, maturity, and diligence, exercises a very impor- 
tant and salutary influence on undergraduates, I take no further account of them in this 
paper. Of the 222 graduate students enrolled in the Graduate Department, no, or just 
half, are candidates for the Ph.D. degree, and 33 are candidates for the A.M. degree. Of 
the rest the majority are candidates for the degree of Master of Science or Master of Engi- 
neering, though 17 are not candidates for any degree. 

Classifying these 222 graduate students with reference to the subjects which they 
selected as their major, I find that they fall into three practically equal classes. A third of 
them have for their major subject languages, philosophy, history, economics, and mathe- 
matics ; another third have physics, chemistry, and the biological sciences ; and the remain- 
ing third, who are enrolled in the technical courses, have for their major subject such pure 
or applied sciences as agriculture, horticulture, engineering, etc. 

SI 



52 The Association of American Universities 

The influence which the graduate students exert at Cornell University is greatly increased 
by the organization, or perhaps I might say the lack of organization, of the Graduate Depart- 
ment. Although it constitutes, for purposes of administration, a separate department under 
the control of the University Faculty, there is in reahty no separate organization of the grad- 
uate students, so far as university work is concerned. That is to say, it has not yet been the 
poKcy of the University to establish a separate department of graduate study, with professors 
and courses marked off from the rest of the University. Even in the announcement of 
courses of study no complete, careful discrimination has been made between courses of 
study offered to undergraduates and to graduates, and it would be difficult to draw a line of 
demarkation between the two. There are many graduate students a part of whose work 
is really undergraduate, and a considerable number of undergraduate students whose work 
is really graduate work. In this way the two classes of students mingle and influence each 
other. The same association between graduate and undergraduate students takes place 
outside of the University, where to a certain extent graduate students mingle with undergrad- 
uate students through the medium of their fraternities and their social organizations. 

With these explanatory remarks I return to the three groups into which, having regard 
to their major subjects, I divided our graduate students. And I desire, first of all, to make 
some observations on the group who are enrolled as graduate students in the technical 
departments. I have already said that in these departments we have a goodly number of 
graduates of other colleges enrolled as undergraduates. But I am now speaking, not of 
these, but of the graduates in technical courses who are admitted to the Graduate Depart- 
ment. These fall into two groups: first, the group of recent graduates who are working 
for the Master's degree, and, secondly, the older and more fully equipped graduates, who 
come, sometimes from the practice of the profession, to pursue definite fines of original 
research. Of the graduate students in our technical departments by far the larger number 
belong to the first class just mentioned. These men pursue advanced undergraduate 
studies with a view to enlarging and broadening their knowledge of the field chosen. 
They engage, it is true, in some investigation; but the emphasis is rather on acquisition than 
on research. Consequently, the influence of this class of graduate students, who, as I have 
said, constitute the larger portion of all graduate students in the technical departments, is 
only in degree different from that exercised by the graduates who are enrolled as under- 
graduates, or by good undergr9,duate students themselves. That is to say, being as a rule 
men of exceptional abihty and of great industry, their presence and successful work in the 
classes set a high standard, which is a very beneficial stimulus to the undergraduate 
members of the class. 

Very different is the effect of the thoroughly equipped graduate who enrolls in the tech- 
nical department to do some special research. Not only is his experimental work an object- 
lesson to the undergraduates who assist him ; not only do they become acquainted, as a con- 
sequence, with the more refined methods of experimental work; but from this co-operation 
with an independent investigator they receive a training which the ordinary laboratory does 



The Seventh Annual Conference 53 

not afford them, and come under a unique stimulus making for independent mental devel- 
opment. Such graduate students may do more for the undergraduates than even members 
of the faculty. And the stimulus which such men give to the professors themselves is some- 
thing which the professors in the technical departments, in common with the professors in all 
other departments, very emphatically signahze. 

As I have already said, the great majority of graduate students enrolled in the technical 
departments are candidates for a Master's degree. They do not, as a rule, spend more than 
one year in graduate study. This study is consequently more related to undergraduate 
work than to graduate work, if the distinguishing mark of the latter be independent investi- 
gation. For such independent work these students in the first year of their graduate course 
are not prepared. Only a small group of graduates who take up graduate work in the 
technical departments, for the solution of special problems which involve original research, 
exercise a distinctive influence on the other work of those departments. And it does not 
seem likely that the number of such men will increase rapidly, as many, and perhaps the 
majority, of the professors in the technical departments beHeve that the proper graduate 
work for men intending to become active practitioners consists in the active practice of their 
professions in the outside world, entered into immediately after graduation at the 
University. 

While the foregoing remarks are in general true of graduate study in all technical and 
professional courses, they need in individual cases some modification. Those graduate 
students in horticulture and agriculture whose work is mainly in the biological and chemical 
sciences should be counted rather with students in pure science than in appHed science. And 
at Cornell there are no graduate students in law, and only a small number in medicine, while 
the University has no theological department. Paulsen points out, in his classical work on 
the German universities, that through the influence of the philosophical faculty the faculties 
of the professional departments also have come to recognize it as their principal aim to make 
discoveries in the field of investigation. "As the medical faculty," he observes, "has been 
fructified by the investigations of natural science, so the faculties of theology and law have 
been fructified by philological and historical investigations, as they were in former times by 
philosophical" (pp. 529 f.). It remains to be seen whether graduate work in the arts and 
sciences in the United States is destined to have a similar influence on the work of the tech- 
nical and professional schools. At the present time its influence is scarcely perceptible, 
except in schools of medicine, the best of which are nowadays giving much 'attention to 
independent investigation — which, however, is conducted by teachers rather than by 
students. 

Returning from this digression, I dismiss also the subject of graduate study in the pro- 
fessional and technical departments, and invite your attention to the remaining two-thirds 
of the members of the Graduate Department at Cornell University. These, as I have 
already said, are divided just equally between the humanities and mathematics on the one 
hand, and the sciences of inorganic and organic nature on the other, the two together 



54 The Association of American Universities 

claiming the devotion of 14P graduate students. And it is undoubtedly in these departments 
of the University, rather than in the technical and professional schools, that we shall find 
the true nature of graduate work exhibited, and in its natural and legitimate results 
produced. 

In noting the reaction of graduate work on the other work of the university I find it 
unnecessary, however, to make any distinction, at least at the outset, between the humani- 
ties on the one hand, and the sciences of nature on the other. With one or two exceptions, 
which will be noted later, the reports which I have received from the professors in all these 
subjects show that the effects produced by graduate work in the field of the humanities are 
not different from the effects which it produces in the field of sciences. 

These effects may be surveyed from the point of view of the teacher, from the point of 
view of the student, and from the point of view of the courses of instruction. 

It will be necessary, however, to distinguish between what may be called ideal condi- 
tions and actual conditions. Under the former I assume that the members of the staff are 
fuUy adequate to all the work required of them, whether graduate or undergraduate, and that 
they have at their disposal all the equipment, appliances and facilities for instruction and 
research which they really need. It is scarcely necessary to point out that, under the con- 
ditions which actually obtain in our universities, this adequacy of men and sufficiency of 
appointments do not generally obtain. And consequently, under actual conditions, under- 
graduate work may suffer because the best energies of an insufficient staff are given to 
graduate work. 

Assuming, however, the ideal conditions which I have described, the most obvious, 
and perhaps the most beneficial, result of the prosecution of graduate work in the univer- 
sity is its effect on the teacher himself. It keeps him intellectually alive, fresh, and grow- 
ing; it prevents that ciystalhzation which Goethe always dreaded, and to which he alludes 
in the opening words of Faust: 

So gib mir auch die Zeiten wieder, 
Da ich noch selbst im Werden war. 
The almost universal confession of professors is that, if it were not for graduate work, they 
would fall into ruts in their undergraduate classes. The professor needs contact with 
more mature minds than those of the undergraduates; he needs the stimulus of necessity 
to keep abreast of the literature of his subject; he needs the free criticism and discussion 
of his statements which he can get only from graduate students. The teacher of graduates 
cannot presume to speak ex cathedra; he is a co-worker with his students in the discovery 
of truth. It is in the graduate department pre-eminently that the teacher can walk naturally 
in the footsteps of Socrates. 

A professor thus engaged in investigation cannot fail to be a better teacher of under- 
graduates than one who is not so equipped. He may, indeed, not be so good a drill-master; 
but he will give to his students a better understanding of the spirit of his science, and of the 
direction in which it is advancing. He makes it possible for the undergraduate to feel the 



The Seventh Annual Conference 55 

inspiration and zest of an individual search after truth, and to learn the methods by which 
advances in knowledge are effected. Nor does it matter that the specific linowledge which 
may be the subject of his graduate work differs from that which he communicates in his 
undergraduate classes: it is the s^rit which he gains by these investigations that counts. 

Thus for its effect upon the teacher alone the seminary of research has an importance 
far out of proportion to the small number of students who may be taking work in it. It 
compels the teacher to go forward. It surrounds him constantly with competent critics. 
It forces him to submit his work to the judgment of keen minds. When we cease to grow 
ourselves, when we lose interest in new ideas, we at the same time become incapable of 
arousing enthusiasm in students, and we seem to lose our insight into the manner in which 
ideas are communicated to, or developed in, them. As long as one is doing serious work in 
his own department, no matter how humble in character, he is not hkely to be the slave of 
formulas or to become a pedant ; but the moment he relaxes, the process of crystalhzation 
begins. The only hope for such a man is to get at work once more and do something on 
his own account. In the great majority of cases the result is not important for the learned 
world. But it is highly important for the man's own intellectual life and for his power of 
teaching. So long as the graduate student is with us, the professor cannot safely cease to 
be a student himself. The ordinary man tends to become unproductive when Hmited solely 
to undergraduate teaching. The stimulus afforded by sharing in the productive work 
of a graduate department affords to most teachers the necessary conditions for keeping intel- 
lectually alive. And the so-called fine teacher of undergraduates who is not interested in 
scholarship, and does not keep ahve in his subject, is nowadays a natural object of sus- 
picion. Where there is no enthusiasm for ideas on the part of the teacher, there will be no 
response on the part of the student. 

Furthermore, the intimate personal relation into which a teacher is brought with his 
graduate students, his constant contact with the fresh ideas of young investigators, prevents 
him from growing stereotyped and rigid in his views. This intellectual old age is more 
to be dreaded by the teacher than physical infirmities. Now Dr. Osier has recently admitted 
that it is possible to escape the intellectual death which old age tends to bring by "running 
with the boys" — by keeping one's mind young and fresh through intimate association and 
intellectual companionship with the vigorous and daring thoughts of younger scholars. It 
is the graduate work, and the graduate work alone, which supplies the conditions for this 
intercourse. 

So much for the effect of graduate work on the mind of the professor, who, I have 
assumed, is also the teacher of undergraduate students in the university. This is a very 
important assumption in its bearing upon what is to follow, for I pass, in the next place, to 
considering the effect of graduate work upon the undergraduate students. Manifestly 
this effect will depend upon the intimacy of the relation which exists between the graduate 
and the undergraduate departments. If the organization of the graduate school be such 
that the work is in the hands of a separate set of men from those who conduct undergrad- 



56 The Association of American Universities 

uate studies, and if the line of demarkation is so sharply defined that undergraduates are 
never admitted to graduate classes, on the one hand, and graduate students are not encour- 
aged to enter undergraduate classes, the effect will be a minimum. If, on the other hand, 
graduate and undergraduate work is carried on by the same men, and especially if the heads 
of departments take an active part in elementary instruction, and the younger men in the 
faculty are encouraged to offer graduate courses, the effect of graduate work upon the col- 
legiate work is likely to be profound. If, further, the relations of the graduate department to 
the college afe such that the undergraduates who have had two or three years of elementary 
routine training may enter classes composed in part of graduate students, and conducted as 
graduate work should be, and if these intermediate courses are accepted by the graduate 
department as suitable minors for advanced degrees, so that there is every encouragement 
to graduate students to take the work, the effect will be good upon both classes of students. 

The atmosphere created by advanced work and research carmot produce its full effect 
if the instructing staff and the students of the graduating school be distinct from the instruct- 
ing staff and the students of the undergraduate department. The connection between the 
two should be as intimate as possible. From the point of view of the staff, the ideal arrange- 
ment would be for each instructor to teach both elementary and advanced work. From the 
point of view of the students, the undergraduates have everything to gain from intercourse 
with a body of earnest advanced students who are engaged in contributing to the advance of 
knowledge. Through this association the undergraduate is brought within sight of the 
firing line. He has the same advantage over the student of a small college that a traveler 
has over one who studies geography from an atlas. Undergraduates, especially upper- 
class men, may, and often do, come sufficiently into direct or indirect contact with both 
critical and constructive graduate work to gain some sense of the incompleteness of human 
knowledge, some sense of the provisional character of its momentary status, and even some 
idea of the directions in which progress is making and the character of the methods 
employed to effect advance. This broadens the student's view of the knowledge that he is 
acquiring, and in some cases interests him in fitting himself to undertake graduate work. 

It is difficult to conceive of anything which so largely contributes to the intellectual 
maturing of undergraduates. Even did they not mingle with graduates in the same classes, 
in laboratories and in seminaries, the mere presence among them socially of the graduate 
students would do much to quicken their sense of the seriousness and of the practical aims 
of university work. But more of helpful stimulus is, of course, due to the practice of uniting 
graduates and undergraduates in the same classes and laboratories, making fitness alone 
a criterion, instead of segregating each of the two Ijodies from the other. The abler upper- 
class men are thus brought into competition with a select group of maturer minds, instead 
of getting "the big head" and relaxing into indolence through finding themselves at the top 
of the ladder. The young men see older and maturer minds than their own living the hfe 
of the scholar (to a greater or less degree). They catch some of their enthusiasm for learning; 
have ideals of life and work held up to them different from the ones of the undergraduate; 



The Seventh Annual Conference ■ 57 

get a truer notion of values, and a truer perspective. A first-class high-minded scholar 
(not a pedant) in a graduate school has often more weight than any instructor, as he comes 
into more intimate relation to his associates and stands closer to their point of view. , A 
vigorous graduate scholar is often the leaven which leavens the .whole lump. Boys do Uke 
an intelUgent gymnast. 

It is through the graduate students that the undergraduates come most directly into 
contact with men engaged in research and devote themselves to scholarship, and, since ideals 
are contagious, the undergraduates catch from these men something of their spirit. The 
idea of a higher field of study beyond the bound of the undergraduate curriculum, where a 
student might be led by an experienced hand up to the frontier of human knowledge, and 
might see the work (and even participate in the work) of those who are engaged in pushing 
it into the unknown, is one of the most important and fruitful ideas which ever influenced 
the mind of an undergraduate. In the old college, with its fixed curriculum, the atmos- 
phere was one largely of tradition, andiUttle that of inquiry. Nor, so long as students 
remain young and immature, can this condition be changed by the substitution of elective 
courses for prescribed. An undergraduate is usually passing through that stage of devel- 
opment in which inquiry is seriously questioning tradition. How could he be more for- 
tunately placed than in a university having a strong graduate department, in which the spirit 
of inquiry is in vigorous activity and controls the intellectual life of the community ? 

Let us now, in the third place, look at the effect of graduate work on the courses offered 
in the undergraduate department of the university. Ih^an institution without a graduate 
department, certainly in the old-fashioned college, the courses offered to students were in the 
main general and comprehensive. The object of these courses was to give the student a 
view, even though a bird's-eye view, of the entire field into which he had come. But the 
essence of graduate work is speciahzation. The man who engages in original research can 
cover only a small area. Wherever graduate work exists, therefore^ there is a tendency to 
subordinate general courses to special courses, these specialties being those in which the 
head of the department is chiefly interested. That is to say, there is a natural, and almost 
irresistible, temptation to emphasize those divisions of the subject for which the teacher 
cares the most, of which he knows the most, and upon which the graduate work is chiefly 
founded. The example of the graduate student makes in the same direction. And from 
him the admiring undergraduate takes the cue, and hastens to limit his courses and his out- 
side reading to a comparatively small group of topics; thus neglecting opportunities for 
laying the broad foundation which is not only necessary for culture, but upon which the 
most productive specialization itself is based. 

There is a place in the college curriculum for courses in the minute study of subjects ; 
but they should follow courses furnishing a general Orientirung in those subjects. The 
tendency has become very marked to sacrifice the student to the subject. And I look for a 
reaction in the interest of the student. For him introductory courses should be general, 
and they should be followed by courses increasingly specializing. The undergraduate should 



58 The Association of American Universities 

be permitted to advance along these courses as rapidly as his abilities and the character of 
his work warrant. The better class of undergraduate students in the advanced courses 
will mingle with the graduates. And the influence of the graduates through them slowly 
permeates the entire undergraduate body. 

The remedy of the evil of premature speciaHzation on the part of undergraduates is not 
to be found in the segregation of the graduate school from the rest of the university. On the 
contrary, let the spirit of the graduate school penetrate into the work of the junior and senior 
classes. But at the same time let us frankly recognize that freshmen have just come from 
the high schools, where their training has consisted ahnost exclusively of drill in languages 
and mathematics, and of memory work in history and in English. The ideal, therefore, 
should be that the first year of freshman work should only slightly depart from the methods 
of the preparatory school, but yet should introduce the student into the larger atmosphere 
of the university ; and successively each year in college should depart a little further from 
the more elementary methods of teaching, and should gradually lead the students up to the 
work of the senior year, which would in large measure consist of investigation and elabora- 
tion under the direction of teachers, and in association with graduate students as fellow- 
workers. 

So far I have been describing the effects which under ideal conditions the work of the 
graduate department naturally produces on the other departments of the university. And 
in this description I may claim to represent the consensus of opinion of the professors of 
Cornell University. In the reports that have come to me, however, there is a dissonant note 
which should be mentioned here. It does not come from any professor of science, but from 
two or three professors of the humanities. A numerically weak minority, they express their 
contention in clear and forcible tones. Observing that the object of the undergraduate 
departments is to provide discipline with reference either to general culture or to professional 
apphcation, and that the graduate school has the totally different aim of promoting research 
and adding to the sum-total of knowledge, they hold that these two ends are essentially dis- 
tinct, involving different methods, would be better safeguarded by distinct organizations, and 
call even for different types of teachers. 

"The university teacher — i. e., the graduate teacher," it is said, "must be an investigator; 
he must be a leader in research; he must stimulate and guide others to research. Eminence 
and success in his own hne can be secured only by a devotion that excludes much intimacy 
with other lines of thought. Even with these Hmitations, the most unremitting toil is the 
price of maintaining one's position among one's peers. How different the college teacher! 
He must, of course, by taste and training be a student, and must continue always to be a 
student ; but beyond a certain Hmit he needs breadth rather than depth. He can afford to 
disregard investigation and research, except as he accepts the results of these at second 
hand." 

To be both a university and a college teacher, it is further argued, is practically impos- 
sible for one man. And the conclusion is drawn that the present minghng of the college 



The Seventh Annual Conference 59 

and the university in one and the same institution is likely to prove disastrous to both. 
Whence the radical demand for a "total separation of the graduate school and the college, 
not only in their teaching, but even in their geographical location." 

This is an objection to graduate work in our universities which might be made, how- 
ever ideal the conditions might be. I do not intend to discuss this objection. It is enough 
to have stated it. I proceed to consider certain harmful effects which graduate work may 
produce on the other work of the university — due, however, not to any inherent incompati- 
biUty between the two, but to an insufficiency of men, appliances, and means for the proper 
discharge of the two functions. 

It is said that in recent years advanced work and research have been increasingly 
attractive to college teachers ; have taken more of their interest and energy, encroaching on 
the equally important work of elementary teaching, which has proportionately suffered; 
that there have been more enthusiastic investigators and fewer enthusiastic teachers. 
As a result, the undergraduate secures a less thorough training than he got in former days 
under the drill-master. Obviously, undergraduate work does not benefit by graduate work, 
if it is neglected on account of it. When graduate work absorbs the time and energies of 
the best men in the faculty, the effect upon the undergraduates is disadvantageous. 

It must, I think, be admitted that most university teachers, at least in the scientific 
departments, have chosen their profession not so much from the love of teaching as from 
the desire to continue the study of their specialty. While the number of those who have a 
positive distaste for teaching is small, there are many whose interest in teaching is sec- 
ondary to their interest in investigation. If overloaded with elementary instruction, they 
are therefore under a strong temptation to neglect their class work in order to gain time for 
the more congenial work of investigation. If they are teaching both graduate and under- 
graduate classes, there is the same temptation to neglect the latter for the sake of the 
former. If there is any yielding to this temptation, undergraduate work must suffer to that 
extent from the presence of a graduate school. 

Two facts contribute to make this danger a serious one. The most obvious of these 
is the fact that the increase in the number of undergraduate students in most universities 
has been more rapid than the increase in the number of competent teachers. In conse- 
quence, the time given to work of instruction by members of the instructing staff is exces- 
sive. It is next to impossible to do the elementary teaching as it ought to be done, and yet 
have time and energy left for advanced work and investigation. The temptation to neglect 
the elementary work is increased by the fact that success in investigation leads more directly 
to advancement than does success in teaching. Published work of good character attracts 
attention at other universities as well as at home, and brings to the writer opportunities to 
better his position. On the other hand, the results of good teaching are not so directly in 
evidence. 

In conclusion I venture to make the following remedial suggestions : 

I. The dangers to imdergraduate work which have just been signalized can be almost 



6o The Association of American Universities 

wholly removed by increasing the number of competent teachers to such an extent that no 
member of the staff is overloaded. There will then be no excuse for neglecting the elemen- 
tary work for advanced work. Almost everyone enjoys teaching, if he does not have too 
much of it. And no institution should undertake both undergraduate and graduate work, 
unless it has an adequacy of staff and facilities for both. 

2. As far as possible, every member of the corps of instruction should have some work 
with graduates and with undergraduates. It is a false notion that a man is good enough to 
teach the beginner, but not the advanced student. It is equally false to hold that the greatest 
scholar and the most experienced teacher is too valuable to devote his time to instructing the 
less advanced students. Of course, men differ in the nature of abihty, and each should be 
placed where the greatest efficiency can be obtained. But it is a mistake for anyone to be 
limited exclusively to either side of the line suggested. To suggest even that a man is not 
fit to touch the highest grade of work is to destroy his ambition and his energy, and conse- 
quently his present value. To keep a man from contact with younger, less advanced 
students is often to encourage in him an indifference to the broader aspects of his field and 
an ignorance of its relations to other branches of learning. 

3. There should be a distinct line drawn between graduate and undergraduate work. 
It is important to decide, and to announce in clear and unmistakable fashion, just what is 
and is not graduate instruction. No undergraduate should be admitted, as of right, to the 
graduate work, but any high-class student should have the opportunity to gain admittance 
to some graduate course (or courses), if he possesses the requisite abihty and preparation. 
This privilege will give the undergraduate an opportunity to get a true idea of independent 
scholarly study, will encourage him to go farther himself, and will cause him to use his 
influence among his associates in the same direction. The fine I would draw should be dis- 
tinct, though not a fixed, barrier, and a student should always know on which side of it he is. 
The practice of allowing students who may "have all their hours up" to register in the grad- 
uate department in the middle of the year is bad. The student frequently continues in the 
same classes and courses as before. This obscures the distinction which obtains (or should 
obtain) between the two grades of work. 



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